The artificial intelligence (AI) tools you use today have their roots in a programming language first released to the public 65 years ago. On March 1, 1960, the AI group led by John McCarthy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published the first programming language for LISP, Learn the history in this edition of Tech Time Warp, which the Computer History Museum calls the “mother tongue” of AI.
The name LISP is derived from “list processing.” The language has gone through many iterations over the past 65 years. They call each iteration a “dialect.” LISP dialects are the foundation of applications used by the London Underground and Grammarly and major corporations such as Boeing, Amazon, and Walmart.
The legacy of LISP
Many consider LISP the second-oldest high-level programming language, just a year younger than FORTRAN. (This is a good crossword clue to remember.) The premise for LISP is the recursive function—when a function is part of its own definition. LISP’s simple notation uses parentheses, which AI programs designed to “learn” could understand.
As a result, McCarthy coined the term “artificial intelligence.” After moving his research to Stanford University, published many works easily accessible today. In this 2007 paper, written in a Q-and-A format, McCarthy defines AI as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs.” He goes on to say that AI “does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.”
For more on the history of LISP, check out McCarthy’s 1979 paper. It ends with a “humorous anecdote” about the first demonstration of LISP. It first used McCarthy’s “garbage collection” concept for memory management. When the demo computers ran out of free storage, the attached Flexowriter began printing: “THE GARBAGE COLLECTOR HAS BEEN CALLED. SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS ARE AS FOLLOWS:” As McCarthy hadn’t yet shared the term “garbage collection,” demo attendees thought they were witnessing a practical joke.
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